Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

This conversation is moderated according to USA TODAY's
community rules.
Please read the rules before joining the discussion.

Virgin Galactic: Rocket reaches space again in test flight

John Antczak, Associated Press
Published 6:28 p.m. MT Feb. 22, 2019

CLOSE

Virgin Galactic says its rocket plane has reached space for a second time in a test flight over California. The spacecraft carried two pilots, and a third crew member to evaluate the cabin from a passenger perspective. (Feb. 22)
AP

LOS ANGELES - Virgin Galactic’s rocket plane reached space for a second time in a test flight over California on Friday, climbing higher and faster than before while also carrying a crew member to evaluate the long-awaited passenger experience.

The winged spaceship soared at three times the speed of sound to an altitude of 55.8 miles before gliding to a safe landing at Mojave Air and Space Port in the desert north of Los Angeles, Virgin Galactic said.

Moses, described as an expert micro-gravity researcher who is in charge of evaluating the passenger cabin, floated free to test elements of the interior.

Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity returns to Mojave Air and Space Port after reaching space Friday, Feb. 22, 2019, in Mojave, Calif. Virgin The company says the winged spaceship reached an altitude of 55.8 miles (89.8 kilometers). In addition to two pilots, the spacecraft carried a third crewmember to evaluate the cabin from a passenger perspective.(Photo: Matt Hartman/AP)

Virgin Galactic is working toward commercial operations that will take passengers on supersonic thrill rides to the lower reaches of space to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and a view of the Earth below.

The company intends to operate a fleet of spaceships out of Spaceport America in the high desert of southern New Mexico.

The flight was delayed two days due to winds, and company founder Richard Branson tweeted that he had to miss it so he could attend a concert in Colombia to raise money for humanitarian aid to crisis-stricken Venezuela.

“Sad to miss spaceflight but looking forward to the concert,” he wrote.

The spaceship, named VSS Unity, is carried aloft by a special carrier aircraft and released at high altitude where it ignites its rocket. It first reached space on Dec. 13 in a flight to an altitude of 51.4 miles at slightly less than Mach 3.

Earlier this month, the rocket motor from that flight was donated to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and pilots Mark “Forger” Stucky and Rick “CJ” Sturckow were awarded commercial astronaut wings by the U.S. Department of Transportation.

The only previous commercial astronaut wings went to pilots Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie, for their 2004 flights in SpaceShipOne, the predecessor to Virgin Galactic’s rocket plane, which is a design called SpaceShipTwo.

Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity rocket plane flown into the atmosphere before launching Friday, Feb. 22, 2019, in Mojave, Calif. Virgin Galactic says its rocket plane has reached space for a second time in a test flight over California on Friday. In addition to two pilots, the spacecraft carried a third crewmember to evaluate the cabin from a passenger perspective.(Photo: Matt Hartman/AP)

A major goal of Friday’s flight was evaluating its handling during descent with its twin tails rotated upward relative to the fuselage.

The “feathered” configuration is used to slow and stabilize the craft as it falls back into the thickening atmosphere. The name came from designer Burt Rutan comparing the mechanism to the feathers of a badminton shuttlecock. The tails rotate back to normal position for the glide to Earth.

Altitude and speed were not specific targets for the flight, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said in an interview earlier this week.

“If we have sort of a nominal-duration burn we will get up pretty high, but that is not one of the formal test goals for this one,” he said.

Whitesides indicated that cabin esthetics, including coloration and the play of sunlight across surfaces, are considered important and that the focus on it also shows the program is advancing.

“That’s not to say that we are fully done with vehicle testing, but we really are starting to move into the interiors testing phase, and that’s a really important milestone for the company,” he said.

Whitesides said he could not say how many more test flights remain.

“We’re getting there, I mean we’re making good progress, and I don’t think it’s a huge remaining number now. There’s light at the end of the tunnel now,” he said.

This May 29, 2018 photo provided by Virgin Galactic shows the VSS Unity craft during a supersonic flight test. The spaceship isn't launched from the ground but is carried beneath a special aircraft to an altitude around 50,000 feet. There, it's released before igniting its rocket engine and climbing.(Photo: Virgin Galactic via AP)

Branson has said he would like to make his first flight to space this summer on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

“I think he’d love to fly as soon as possible, and we’d love to figure out ways to enable that to happen,” he said.

But Whitesides could not commit to a date.

Like the December flight, VSS Unity again carried a payload of various experiments organized under a NASA program.